Malai Kofta Recipe
One of my favorite dishes of Indian cuisine is malai kofta. When I first ate it, I fell in love with it and then ate it at Indian restaurants whenever possible, and after a point I started to make it at home. The length of the ingredients list may be daunting, I agree, but most of the ingredients and spices used in the recipe are ingredients and spices that are found in every kitchen where food is cooked regularly. If you are interested in Indian cuisine, supplementing the missing spices will also be useful for the Indian food you will try from now on.
Malai kofta is simply potato patties with cheese served in a kind of Indian curry. There is also cashew and raisins in the potato patties. You can add these ingredients to the meatballs as filling as in the recipe, or you can add them directly into the meatball mixture. Summing up the recipe like this, I'm sure it sounds more doable, because it actually is. Most of the ingredients in the recipe are spices, and adding spices to a recipe is neither difficult nor time consuming. Kofta, which has the least ingredients in the recipe, takes the longest to make. So don't let the ingredient list influence your decision to try the recipe. Making malai kofta is not more difficult or takes longer than making Turkish kofte stew.
If I am not mistaken, my most tried recipes from Indian cuisine are aloo gobi and chickpea curry. If you haven't tried it before, you can also check those recipes.
Can it be made with the missing spices? Are there any alternatives to spices?
If you are a master in Indian cuisine, if you can understand which spices are missing when you taste an Indian dish or you can comment on which spices would be better to use a little more or less, you can change the spices or use others instead of them according to your knowledge and experience.
Enjoy the recipe...
Ingredients
For the 1st stage of the sauce;
- 1 onion,
- 2 tomatoes,
- 1 tablespoon of butter,
- 10-15 cashews,
- 1 small stick of cinnamon,
- 2 bay leaves,
- 1 teaspoon of cumin,
- 1 teaspoon of garam masala.
For the second stage of the sauce;
- 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil,
- 1 clove of garlic,
- 1 teaspoon of crushed fresh ginger,
- 1 teaspoon of sweet paprika,
- 1 teaspoon of chili pepper,
- 1 teaspoon of dried coriander,
- 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric,
- 1/4 teaspoon of allspice,
- 1/4 teaspoon of cardamom powder,
- 1 teaspoon of cloves,
- 100 ml heavy cream,
- 1/4 cup of water,
- Salt.
For meatballs;
- 1 large or 2 small potatoes (200 g in total),
- 1 cup of curd cheese,
- 2.5 tablespoons of flour,
- 1 hot green pepper,
- 1 teaspoon of dried coriander,
- 1/2 teaspoon garam masala,
- Salt.
- For the filling, 1 tablespoon of coarsely chopped cashews and 1 tablespoon of raisins,
- Oil for frying.
Preparation
- Take the potato (s) in a small sauce pan and add enough water to cover it, cover the lid and boil until soft,
- For the 1st stage of the sauce, heat the butter, add cumin, cinnamon stick and bay leaf and mix,
- Add the cashews and coarsely chopped onion and cook until the onion is half soft,
- Add the chopped tomatoes and garam masala and cook until both are soft,
- Remove it from heat, remove the cinnamon stick and blend it with an immersion blender,
- For the second stage of the sauce, heat the olive oil in a separate pan, add crushed garlic, ginger, sweet ground pepper, chili, turmeric, coriander, cardamom, cloves and salt and mix,
- Add the mixture, water and the first stage of the sauce and mix,
- Cover the lid and cook on low heat for 20-30 mins.,
- For meatballs, peel and grate the boiled potato,
- Add cheese, flour, finely chopped green pepper, coriander, garam masala and salt and knead,
- Mix the cashews and raisins,
- Divide the mixture into eight equal parts,
- Take one of the pieces and roll it up and press it with your palm and flatten it,
- Put a teaspoon of cashew + grape mixture in the middle, close and roll,
- Prepare the other pieces in the same way,
- Cover the meatballs with a very small amount of flour,
- Heat the oil in a deep saucepan and fry the meatballs,
- Drain the cooked sauce with a strainer and take it into a deep plate,
- Place the meatballs in the sauce,
- Sprinkle with a little heavy cream and chopped fresh coriander (parsley if you don't like coriander).
Bon Appetit...